Do It: Watch Blue Crush

New feature time. Every once and a while, I’ll recommend something to you that you really ought to do to make your life more enjoyable. These recommendations may be fairly commonsensical and obvious (pay off your debt, root for the Tar Heels) or they may be counterintuitive, as with the inaugural “Do It.”

Here goes: Watch Blue Crush. You remember, the cheesy Kate Bosworth vehicle about grrl power surfing. NOT a good film. But, oddly, a must-watch.

Kate is huh-huh-huh-hot. Not so strong with the acting. And I think it spent about one whole weekend in just 42 theaters before proceeding directly to video and not collecting $200. But that is exactly the point. Now you can watch it in the comfort of your own home on some kind of Blue RayBan XL-DVD-HD-MMVII disk and soak in what I think is the crispest ocean footage I have ever seen.

Plus, the story has bone structure almost as good as Kate’s. The film was inspired by a Susan Orlean article in the New Yorker. (Orlean--who was “having a moment”--also inspired the Charlie Kaufman flick, Adaptation starring perennial “watch me act” Oscar bait, Meryl Streep in a good, loose role.)

I recommend watching the film itself pretty much as warm up for the DVD extras (and for Kate, who was hacht!). On the “dude, sweet” side, the footage is gorgeous and the actors fight to be as beautiful as the scenery. On the “woefully gnarly” side, the dialogue descends to the level of Nike ads. But then you can put in Disk 2 and watch the making of.

Watch Blue Crush. Do It.

PS - I have never really surfed (does snapping a fin count?) and--with a center of gravity about 3 inches above the top of my head--I do not intend to learn. But I am in love with body surfing and, as dumb as it sounds, the feeling inside my head riding a wave 3 feet off the deck is the same one visually depicted in surf films when the board tilts over a cerulean 10 footer. Oh, and “Sun is Shining” by Finley Quaye is radical, bro; now playing on iTunes.